Freshman Named Big Sky Golfer of the Week

Nov 01, 2007

Nov. 1, 2007

Freshman Kristina Gargarohas earned Big Sky Conference Golfer of the Week accolades after three outstanding rounds of play at the prestigious Las Vegas Collegiate Showdown. Play at the three-day tournament concluded on Wednesday (Oct. 31).

She became the third Eagle to be honored by the league this fall (out of seven awards given out) - freshman Kellie Holmstedt was honored on Sept. 26 and junior Chloe Nelson earned accolades on Sept. 12. To put that into perspective, the Eagles had earned BSC POW honors just twice in the entire two seasons prior to 2007-08.

"I'm really proud of Kristina," head coach Marc Hughessaid. "She deserves the award; she had a great week against the hardest field we will face this year. She's been our best player the last two tournaments, which isn't easy to do as a freshman. That bodes well for her future and our team's future. She's a great player who will continue to improve."

Gargaro shot a 224 (75-75-74) to tie for 31st in the power-packed field which included 10 teams ranked in the top 30 nationally. Her final score is her best showing of the year, especially impressive considering she is second on the team in scoring average (76.21) behind Nelson.

She helped lead the team to a 16th-place finish in the 18-team field with a 919 (305-307-307). The only other Pacific Northwest schools to take part were Idaho and Washington; the Vandals tied for 12th, while the Huskies were 14th, just two shots ahead of the Eagles.

The Eagles have now concluded their fall season and will start up the spring campaign right back in southern Nevada at the UNLV Spring Invitational from March 10-12. That tournament will take place at Boulder Creek Golf Club in Boulder Creek, Nev.

"We had a great fall and I'm happy with our progress," Hughes said. "I knew coming in that Chloe, Marli (Mikulecky) and Chelsey (Lollar) would be rock solid. I didn't know exactly where we were going to be with our incoming freshmen (Gargaro and Kellie Holmstedt) or our JC transfer, Ines Pantoli. The three incoming players provided a big boost to an already solid team, which is why we were successful.

"We will focus on improving as best as we can over the winter and trying to sustain this effort next spring. With all that said, I'm very proud of this group's effort to this point."